Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T13:24:08.791Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Does Merit Have a Future?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Extract

Cathy N. davidson'S the new education: how to revolutionize the university to prepare students for a world in flux challenges us to address nonacademics, and to update our teaching, by focusing on the big picture. She calls on us to rise above departmental politics and the tribalism of disciplinary debates. Instead of engaging in those familiar struggles, we should be talking with our neighbors and our elected representatives about the advantages of eliminating letter grades; the virtues of pedagogies that are learner-centered, collaborative, and project-based; the perils of specialization; the damage that departments do by stifling change; the promise of educational technology if divorced from the profit motive; the myth that STEM degrees lead directly to career success; and, of course, the need for public reinvestment in higher education. Each of these talking points draws energy from Davidson's contention that digital media have rendered industrial models of education obsolete.

Type
Theories and Methodologies
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Carnevale, Anthony P., and Stephen J. Rose. “Economy Goes to College: The Hidden Promise of Higher Education in the Post-industrial Service Economy.” Center on Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University, 2015, cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/the-economy-goes-to-college/.Google Scholar
Chun, Chun Wendy Hui. Control and Freedom: Power and Paranoia in the Age of Fiber Optics. MIT P, 2006.Google Scholar
Davidson, Cathy N. The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux. Basic Books, 2017.Google Scholar
Deresiewicz, William. Excellent Sheep: he Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. Free Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Guinier, Lani. he Tyranny of the Meritocracy: Democratizing Higher Education in America. Beacon Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Harvard and Radcliffe Annual Reports, 1826–1995. Harvard University Archives Research Guides, Harvard Library, 13 June 2018, guides .library.harvard.edu/c.php?g=638791&p=4471938.Google Scholar
Kelderman, Eric. “Higher-Ed Lobbyists Are Told to Make Peace with Republicans.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 Dec. 2017, www.chronicle.com/article/Higher-Ed-Lobbyists-Are-Told/241999.Google Scholar
Newfield, Christopher. The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix hem. Johns Hopkins UP, 2016.Google Scholar
Ohmann, Richard M. English in America: A Radical View of the Profession. Oxford UP, 1976.Google Scholar
Rawls, T.H.College Legacy Admissions: Affirmative Action for Whites.” he New York Times, 6 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/opinion/college-legacy-admissions-affirmative-action-for-whites.html.Google Scholar
Rudolph, Frederick. he American College and University: A History. Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.Google Scholar
Snyder, Thomas D.Higher Education.” 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait, edited by Snyder, National Center for Education Statistics, Jan. 1993, nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf, pp. 6374.Google Scholar
Thelin, John. A History of American Higher Education. 2nd ed., Johns Hopkins UP, 2011.Google Scholar
Thompson, E.P. “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism.” Past and Present, no. 38, 1967, pp. 5697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar